Autobiography of James Silk Buckingham
Including his Voyages, Travels, Adventures, Speculations, Successes and Failures

This two-volume autobiography of James Silk Buckingham (1786–1855), traveller, writer and social idealist, was published in 1855.

James Silk Buckingham (Author)

9781108038584, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 8 November 2011

442 pages
21.6 x 14 x 2.5 cm, 0.56 kg

James Silk Buckingham (1786–1855) was a writer who travelled extensively and published accounts of his adventures in places such as India, Persia, Egypt, and Palestine. He first went to sea as a boy, and, aged only ten, spent a period as a prisoner-of-war in Spain. He was expelled from India in 1823 for criticising the East India Company and the Bengal government. Back in London, he was a supporter of reform, and served as the first M.P. for the new constituency of Sheffield, from 1832 to 1837. He founded several journals, including The Athenaeum. On retiring from Parliament, he left for North America, where he spent nearly four years, and was highly critical of America's economic dependence on slavery. His autobiography was cut short by his death. Volume 2 covers his travels in the Middle East and India, where he met European travellers including Belzoni and Burckhardt.

1. Voyage through the Straits of Scio to Smyrna
2. New phase of life. Gaiety and pleasure in London
3. Stay at Malta and agreeable parties there
4. Agreeable stay at Smyrna, notwithstanding the plague
5. Sail from Smyrna with a companion, the Hermes
6. Elegant hospitalities and agreeable parties in England
7. Sail for Smyrna. Leaving goods behind at Malta
8. Embark for Egypt in the schooner Theodosia
9. Voyage from Alexandria to Rosetta by the Lakes
10. Offer to transport ships across the Desert of Suez
11. Visit a caravan of slaves from the interior of Africa
12. Descent of the Nile from Nubia, and the Cataracts
13. Descent of the Nile from Keneh to Cairo
14. Journey in search of the ancient canal
15. Journey through the land of Goshen
16. First interview with Mohammed Ali Pasha
17. Departure for India by Suez and the Red Sea
18. Voyage from Jedda by Loheia and Hodeida to Mocha
19. Entrance to the noble harbour of Bombay
20. Mercantile want of confidence in the Egyptian Pasha
21. Voyage from Bombay to Suez by the Red Sea
22. Arrival at Suez, and journey across the desert.

Subject Areas: British & Irish history [HBJD1]